This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
In recent years, consumers have been provided with a variety of devices and systems to enable them to locate places on a digital map. The term “place” is a general term used throughout the description of embodiments of this invention. The term “place” includes street addresses, buildings located at street addresses such as businesses and landmarks, and facilities located at a number of street addresses such as shopping malls and business parks. The variety of devices and systems used by consumers are in the form of in-vehicle navigation systems that enable drivers to navigate over streets and roads; hand-held devices such as personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), PNDs, and cell phones or other types of mobile devices that can do the same; desktop applications, and Internet applications in which users can generate maps showing desired places. The common aspect in all of these and other types of devices and systems is a map database of geographic features, vectors and attributes, and software to access, manipulate and process the map database in response to user queries.
Essentially, in all of these devices and systems a user can enter a desired place and the returned result will be the location of that place. Typically, users will enter the name of a business, such as a restaurant for example, or a destination landmark, such as the Golden Gate Bridge for example, or a street address, etc. The device/system then determines and returns the location of the requested place. The location may be shown on a map display, or may be used to calculate and display routes and present driving directions to the location in a known manner, or used in other ways.
When driving directions, or a route of travel, from a first location to a second location, is determined, the route of travel is typically determined according to an algorithm. The first location is often the user's current location, either input by the user or determined by the device/system, such as from received Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, while the second location is an input location (or destination). Various such algorithms are known to those skilled in the art. These algorithms generally share several features. An obvious primary feature of all such algorithms is actually determining a route of travel from the first location to the second location. Generally, these algorithms also determine such a route of travel to achieve various preprogrammed and/or user selected goals. These goals can include, for example, the shortest travel time, the shortest distance, or the most scenic route of travel.